Thursday, June 26, 2008

We crossed the 8 mile Confederation bridge to Prince Edward Island. There we saw lots of potato farms, red cliff coastline and they had some sweet campgrounds right on the water. Betsy went to go see the Anne of Green Gables farm and I tried to hit a few balls at a nearby driving range but they were mowing the grass. For some reason they don't take that opportunity to cage the guy up and let you try to gun him down. You sell a lot more balls that way.

The tides are most extreme in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We had a chance to walk around the Hopewell Rocks at low tide and watch the tide come in at a rate of 6-8 feet per hour. The further up the Bay of Fundy you go, the more ridiculous the tides get. In Canada, they also have Bed and Egg hotels.

Cape Cod was very scenic and luckily we hit it just before the mad summer season starts. But only spent a day there. Next we visited an old friend in Boston from UCI hockey and some of Betsy's MBA friends who recently translocated. We happened to get on a train with a bunch of Red Sox fans going to a game and now I know why my good friend Craig is the way he is. Also did the Freedom Trail despite the rain and visited Cheers, of course. In Maine we stopped by Mystic and had some pie at Mystic Pizza. Believe it or not the pizza was awesome despite the cheesy movie constantly playing in the background. Next up is Acadia National Park which is famous for its rugged coastline scenery, lobster, and significant tide variations.

From DC we drove up to Philadelphia but it was a Friday afternoon and hit crawling traffic about 20 miles out. After 5 days of historic culture in DC we figured it wasn't worth the hassle to see an old bell. Skipping out on a philly cheesesteak, however, almost made us reconsider. Next we had a great visit with some friends in NY despite marginal weather. Continuing north we visited my cousin's family in Connecticut. Then drove up through Rhode Island and into Cape Cod. At this point we were getting real sick of all the toll roads. Probably blew about $30 from DC to Massachusetts. The only measurable value out of it was one toll collector blasting Metallica from his booth- in New Jersey, of course. Sorry, no pics for this section. Instead listen to the soothing sounds of Metallica for effect.

Continued up the Appalachian mountains via Blue Ridge Hwy and Shenandoah. Visited a few waterfalls amidst the Memorial Day weekend crowds. All the campgrounds were full so we renegade camped at a trailhead parking lot with other people who couldn't find a site and didn't want to pay $40-50 at a private campground. We drove into DC on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend hoping traffic wouldn't be too bad. Alas, this is the day of the annual Thunder Rally where Vets (the military kind) on motorcycles parade around DC. We spent 4 more days in DC visiting a good number of monuments and museums. The 2 highlights were the views from the top of the Washington Monument and getting a personal tour of the Capitol from an old UC Irvine rowing friend who works for Rep. Dennis Kucinich from Ohio. Tons of people were visiting this week but somehow the only campground in town was deserted despite it's nice proximity to the Metro and forested surroundings. Even caught a bit of a league kickball game going on in the Mall.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Don't fear, new updates will be up soon (in maybe 2 weeks). Right now we're in northeast Canada and internet access is tougher to find. Lots of pics to upload so we'll do that when we find a good connection.